Free Unforgettable by Meryl Sawyer Page B

them seemed to indicate that she was involved in something criminal. The police chief certainly thought so. He had reopened the investigation into the hiker’s death. Could she be a thief, or worse? She just didn’t know anymore. She hated herself. Hated what she saw in the mirror. Hated not being able to remember her own name. Hated having Greg Braxton pity her.
    Lucky kept her forehead braced against the cold concrete, thankful for the silence. Evidently everyone had left. She closed her eyes, telling herself to rest. She was so tired that she was shaky. The crying made it impossible to sleep at night. The first time she had heard it, a few minutes passed before she realized no one was actually crying.
    It was all in her head.
    She was alone in a prison cell. But the sobs had seemed so real. So hopeless. Each time she tried to sleep the same sound whispered through the empty corridors of her brain until it became a keening wail.
    The clanging of the cell door startled her, and she realized she must have dozed off. It was probably lunch. What had the woman who had been in the other cell called it? Blowup. The soy-based protein expanded in the stomach and felt like cement.
    “You’re outta here,” the matron informed her.
    “Someone’s posted bail?” She hadn’t remembered how bail worked, but the public defender had explained it. The matron nodded, glaring at her as if she were public enemy number one.
    Once freedom would have filled her with hope, but not any longer. If her family hadn’t come for her by now, they never would. Greg Braxton must have posted the bail. She swung around and faced the wall. “Tell him to save his money. I’m not budging.”
    “Suit yourself.” The woman left with a belittling huff of disgust.
    Didn’t Greg have any sense? Couldn’t he see she wasn’t worth his trouble?
    Never forget. I love you.
    “Stop it!” In sheer frustration, she banged her head against the wall before she remembered the doctor’s warning that another blow to the head m ight cause even more damage. “ Why are those words imprinted in my brain?”
    Last week the words had comforted her. That was before she’d been imprisoned. She’d spent only three days in jail, but it seemed like a lifetime. If somebody had once loved her, they’d deserted her now.
    Something cold touched her arm and she whirled around. Dodger stood beside her, his soulful eyes on her, his tail wagging. In spite of herself, she smiled. Then she saw Greg standing in the open door, his six-foot-plus frame dwarfing the tiny cell.
    “Come on.” Greg’s quietly spoken words ricocheted off the walls.
    Something tightened in her chest, hurting a bit, yet giving her a curiously weightless feeling. A combination of pure joy and loneliness, a bittersweet ache that she had never before experienced.
    Smothering a sob, she bit down on the inside of her cheek. Like a swift-rising tide, hope welled up inside her, taking her by surprise. The cinch around her chest tightened again, and the bittersweet ache intensified. Until this second she had no idea how alone she’d been. Now here was the one person she truly knew. Someone who was, in an unexplainable, frightening way, part of her.
     
     
    G reg drove down the road with Lucky at his side and Dodger in the backseat. Unfuckingbelievable! What had possessed him? He had posted bail, putting up the one thing of any value he owned—his home.
    Why? To have Lucky stare out the window, her head averted, clinging to the door like a limpet. She hadn’t said a damn thing.
    He’d led her out of the cell, gotten her a lab coat to wear instead of the prison jumpsuit, and taken her to his car.
    “ Want a baseball cap? ” he asked as he stopped to let a truck loaded with sugar cane pass. He didn’t know what else to say. He reached into the backseat and snatched his cap off the seat beside Dodger.
    Without looking at him, she took it and pulled her unruly hair through the opening in the back of the cap.